


In Real Life

by Catchclaw



Series: Mental Mimosa [161]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Shades of a Show That Shall Not Be Named
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 13:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchclaw/pseuds/Catchclaw
Summary: “Hang on,” Steve says a half-second after Stark stops talking. “You want us to what?”





	In Real Life

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: co-stars and fake/pretend relationship. Prompts from this [generator](http://colormayfade.tumblr.com/generator) and this [one](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/prompts).

The show’s in its third season before it becomes a hit. Hell, it takes most of season two to get decent ratings; they almost don’t get a chance to do a third, and the turning point, the pivot between almost certain cancellation and hello Teen Choice Awards has nothing to do with the writing or the characters or the plot. It’s because of Stark’s Big Idea.

“Hang on,” Steve says a half-second after Stark stops talking. “You want us to _what_?”

“God, Rogers,” Bucky says, his tone sharp enough to peel paint, “he wants us to pretend that we’re dating. You go deaf in the last five minutes?”

Steve ignores him. Pretty much par for the course. “Tony, come on. You can’t be serious.”

Stark folds his arms and leans back against the tiny countertop. He’s not a tall guy, but right now, it feels like he’s looming over them, staring down at them from showrunner mountain while they, the lowly actors, cower on Chris’ small, scratchy couch. “This is my serious face, boys. As serious as it’s gonna get up and until the network pulls the plug which, might I remind you, they are this close to doing.”

“Yeah,” Steve says, “but how is us holding hands in public or going to premieres together or whatever supposed to help that?”

“Simple,” Tony says with a dazzling smile, like a shark about to strike. “We’ll be giving the people--your fans, my lovelies--exactly what they want: Cody and Jay together, at last. If they can’t bang on the show for, you know, moral reasons, then goddamn if the actors who play them can’t get it on in real life.”

There’s dead quiet for moment, so quiet that they can hear the grips calling to each other outside, here the creak of sets shifting and cameras being set back in their tracks.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Bucky says at last. “ _That’s_ the genius idea behind this? Two fictional brothers can’t fuck without you getting booted off prime time but we can?”

Stark spreads his hands. “I know, I know. It’s truly radical thinking. Don’t thank me for my gifts all at once.”

Steve blinks. At least, he thinks he does. It’s hard to tell. His whole face feels like it’s frozen, his whole body turned into lead. “So,” he makes his mouth say, “how would this work, exactly?”

Barnes whips his head around so fast the couch almost tips over. “No! Rogers, you can’t tell me you’re buying this shit.”

Steve keeps his eyes on Stark, a guy who, ok, yeah, can be a little out there. But that’s the whole reason Steve got this job; who else would’ve plucked a guy with two guest shots and a handful of supportings to be the co-lead in a network series? Barnes hadn’t wanted him; he’d made that clear from day one. Bucky was a name, Bucky had been a brand, and even if it’d been two years since his last big hit ended--a sitcom called _The Commandos_ that Steve thought was spectacularly dumb--the network still saw him as a star and god knew so did he. For Barnes, the idea of sharing a credit with a no-name kid from Brooklyn was nothing less than absolute bullshit.

But eventually, when the dailies started to come back that first season, even Bucky had to admit that when the cameras were rolling and they were in character, raising their shotguns at unfriendly ghosts or hugging it out on the side of a desolate American road, there was a chemistry between them, a real energy that translated like wow on screen. Steve could see it, could feel it, even, when they were in the middle of something heavy; the same things that made Barnes so goddamn annoying once the director called cut--his weird intensity, his ego, his inability to ever back down or admit fault--made him a joy to play off of. Somedays, Steve felt like a rock hurling itself at a tin roof: every strike set off new ripples of sound and movement that send him bouncing back in a direction he’d never expected.

That some of their fans picked up on the tension that lay under that energy was, Steve figured, to their credit--though interpreting that tension as sexual in nature struck him as a bridge too far. When he looked at Cody and Jay, he saw two headstrong brothers who were each battling for their kind of right, two soldiers in the same war against the supernatural with very different understandings of why they were fighting. Even if they weren’t related, they were brothers-in-arms and yeah, Steve’s read enough history to know that foxhole romances happen, but that wasn’t the vibe he turned into during a scene. He went to _family_ and _blood_ and _the need to protect_ and crappy ratings aside, those were choices that seemed to work. They made Stark happy, anyway, and this was his baby, the story he’d spent his whole life preparing to tell, and if sometimes if felt like they were playing to an audience of one, well then, Steve wanted to play it right.

But was he willing to play along so willingly if the role was his real life?


End file.
